Smoochy Nightmares
by CDV10
Summary: Everyone and their mother knows there's a fan following of the Jericho&Steph pairing in the fanfiction world. But what happens when Chris himself catches wind of that same following?
1. What truth?

**A/N: So I think I might be getting in over my head with a new story. But oh well… the muses, I tell you, the muses. Compounded with Nina initiating a conversation that sparked an idea for this story, and well, here I am… I don't know how long this will be, maybe a few chapters, maybe less, maybe more? Heh, I didn't answer anything, did I? Oh well…**

**I don't own the names and characters that I mention (WWE Inc / Vince McMahon does). Hopefully, Chris Irvine and Stephanie McMahon own their own names, you know? The actual people behind the characters? Heh, enjoy, and leave me some love (or hate, whatever floats your boat) when you're done.**

* * *

Chris Irvine stepped out of the bathroom as he towel-dried his hair, thankful for the day off from his busy schedule. He was in a really good mood, ridiculously good mood even as he hummed to himself, heading down the stairs of his Florida home to make himself a sandwich for lunch. It was such a nice feeling to be home and just take a break for once. 

His humming turned to whistling as he headed into his kitchen, already wondering what tomorrow would bring his way. He broke into a grin as he reflected on everything he'd done since he'd left the WWE, and it was all so refreshing to him. He was really enjoying his hiatus from Vince's circus – yes, he was reveling in it, and he had no intentions of coming back anytime soon.

There was just too much for him to do for that to even be a possibility anymore.

Moments later, he plopped down on his sofa with his sandwich as he flipped on the TV, immediately picking up the recording of RAW from the night before that was stored on his TiVo. Sure, he wasn't in any kind of rush to come back, but wrestling was and would always be in his blood. He couldn't help but watch it every now and then to see what people were up to.

He couldn't even stomach getting through an hour of the show before he turned it off, grimacing as he did. Lord, did Vince need him back, and in a bad way. That show was absolutely piss-poor without him. This thought fueled his pride and only further lifted the Canadian's good spirits as he stood up.

"I'm still the highlight of the night." He mumbled happily to himself, before shuffling his feet and doing his patented juke-and-jive.

_Still got it, baby! _He thought with a grin, before wondering how his fans were getting by without their weekly dose of Vitamin C. At the thought of his fans, Chris suddenly realized it'd been a while since he answered the next batch of emails for the popular Q&A section on his official website.

He didn't like to keep his fans waiting, so he figured he was due for an update…

Just as he was booting up his computer, his cell phone went off. He glanced at it and recognized the number, before he answered.

"Jay, my man, what's up?" He greeted as his computer finally whirled to life.

"Not much Chris," Jay Reso answered. "I'm just over here driving back into the city, and was bored, so I figured I'd see what you were up to."

"Same old thing, you know me."

"Oh yeah," Jay laughed. "You only had a play last weekend, that's just a drive to the store for you, isn't it?"

"You know me…" Chris said with a grin as he logged online. "Anyways, I'm just at home, about to check my emails. Can't keep my fans waiting for too long."

"Because a year isn't a long time?" Jay asked, making Chris roll his eyes.

"You know I'm not feeling the wrestling thing right now, I did it for fifteen years man, enough is enough."

"And it's time for a change?"

"Alright there, Owen," Chris snorted, as he pulled up his first email. He groaned as he read it. "Oh God, not another one."

"What's up? Someone email you asking if they could get you in bed?" Jay snickered.

"No, dumbass, someone instead emailing me to ask when I'm getting back into wrestling." Chris said with a sigh as he deleted the email.

_Only around 2,000 left to go…_

"You should just put like a cardboard sign around you and walk around wearing it all day, put your answer on there for the world to read." Jay suggested, as Chris deleted yet another email.

"I should, I mean honestly, when will these fans get a clue that I'll come back when I feel like it?"

"I don't know, damn those fans for loving you so much, huh?" Jay said jokingly, to which Chris groaned again.

"You know I care about my fans, but sometimes, I just wish they'd lay off of it, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. Well actually I don't, but I can imagine that my peeps would go crazy without me, so yeah, I can only imagine," he said with a laugh. "But hey, I'm gonna have to let you go, driving on the expressway and being on the cell phone, it's not safe."

"Yeah, you should be a poster-boy for that message, it'll be like the click-it-or-ticket commercials, you'll be famous," Chris said sarcastically as Jay laughed again.

"Always a blast catching up with you Irvine, I'll hopefully talk to you again soon."

"We'll be talking…"

* * *

"_Y2JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ, when R u CoMiNN back to RaWW?"_

Delete.

"_Hey Chris, you thinking about coming back anytime soon?"_

Delete.

"_Yo Jericho, how's it going? Do you think you'll be coming back to wrestling sometime soon?"_

Delete.

Delete.

De-freakin'-lete.

Chris groaned and leaned back in his seat, part of him tempted to just erase all of the emails he had. Honestly, couldn't people be more original and ask him a more prevalent question? Like about his phenomenal play where he had stolen the show? Or about the book he was in the process of writing? Or about the glorious band that was Fozzy?

_This is why I hate the internet, _he thought to himself as he decided to somehow keep chugging along… he had made a promise a long time ago to read all the feedback he got, and he was going to have to just suck it up and keep reading…

"_Hey Chris, what's it like performing for the Groundlings?"_

_Finally! … _he cracked his knuckles and immediately began to type his response.

"It's been a blast, I'm having a really fun time, especially when you consider what some of the names have been who've performed with them! Yes, Chris Jericho can do more than just wrestle…"

He hit the send button, responding personally to the brilliant fan who had sent him a different question, before copying and pasting the Q&A onto a Word document for later posting on his site. Once again humming to himself, he pulled up another email as he leaned back in his chair.

"_Hey Chris, we all know you had the hots for Stephanie McMahon back in the day, so tell us, what was your favorite scene to film with her? And the kiss doesn't count, cause it's obviously up there, right?"_

Chris's eyes grew wide as he leaned too far back in his chair, before falling completely out of it. He groaned and clutched his back, rubbing it as he kneeled up to read the email again.

_Is this person for real? _He thought, feeling bewildered. _Did they seriously think there was something going on between me and Stephanie?_

He immediately began to type…

"If you could call insulting her week in and week out having the hots for her, then yeah, I guess I was madly in love with Stephanie if you look at it like that… sarcasm aside though… my favorite scene was definitely nailing her in the face with a pie, talk about classic, it still makes me laugh today."

He hit the send button, and then thought about it… was this worth putting on his Q&A page? He shrugged, figuring that if Stephanie would ever take the time to look, she'd probably laugh at his response anyways. The thought made him grin as he copied and pasted the exchange to save it for later use as he went back to checking his emails…

_Alright, _he thought to himself as he glanced at his watch. _Four more emails, and then I need to get some sleep. _He could already feel fatigue creeping through him. Even though it was still pretty early in the day, he hadn't been able to get much sleep from the buzz and excitement of performing his play in Toronto the past weekend. His thoughts went back to the Stephanie email and he snickered at the notion. Their entire storyline was never meant to be romantic, how could fans even start to take it that way? It was amusing, to say the least.

"_Y2J when are you coming back? Will you go to ECW? Why weren't you at ONE NIGHT STAND?"_

Delete.

"_AJ StYLeS couLD TOTALLY wh00p your ass Jericho!"_

He rolled his eyes. Delete.

Just then, he realized he had a new email and went back to check who it was. His eyebrows raised in surprise as he realized it was the same fan who had emailed him that question about Stephanie. Intrigued, he clicked on the link to read the fan's rather quick response…

"_The pie gag huh? Yeah, that was a good one… and even though you were supposedly hating each other, you always seemed to touch Stephanie whenever you could. Talk about hot chemistry, eh Chris?"_

He immediately hit the reply button…

"Yeah, we had chemistry, but I also had chemistry with Rocky and Benoit, are you saying I have the hots for them too?"

He hit the send button and frowned as he stared at the monitor, waiting for a response. Just when he thought he'd finally won the verbal, or rather, online sparring, and could go and take a nap, he got his response and immediately opened the email.

"_Oh you had great chemistry with them, in the ring and stuff, verbally with The Rock too, awesome stuff Chris. But you still have no response for all that unnecessary touching with Stephanie… it's not every person that you would touch on the face like that! It's okay Chris, we all know the truth…"_

He rolled his eyes and got up, deciding that that was more than enough exchanging of emails with some fan he didn't know. Normally he'd reply once and be done with it. He had way too many emails from way too many fans to let one get to him so much, and over something so trivial as an old storyline he had with Stephanie of all people.

Sure, he had loved it at the time, but why not? It had worked, and it was fun to antagonize her on-camera. It meant nothing… fans could really look into things too much, he thought to himself as he headed off towards his bedroom to catch some sleep.

But all the while, one question kept nagging at him…

_What truth?_


	2. Everyone's a fan

**A/N: I own nothing…**

* * *

Chris yawned loudly as he stretched his arms out, feeling very refreshed after his nap. He tossed his covers off him and stood up, rubbing his eyes as he made his way to his bedroom door. He had only been asleep for around an hour and he was already hungry again. 

The sudden ringing of the phone downstairs startled him just then, and he cursed as he put a hand over his heart. He made a mental note to lower the volume on the phone as he trudged downstairs, before finally grabbing the phone to answer it.

"Hello?" He greeted with a yawn.

"Hey Chris, it's Shane."

"McMahon?"

"Yeah, like you know tons of Shanes." Shane responded sarcastically. "Did I wake you up?"

"No, I just got up from a nap." Chris answered as he headed into his kitchen. "What's up?"

"Nothing, just wanted to see how you're doing, how your band is doing, how your comedy improv thing is doing, when you're gonna come back to wrestling, how your book is doing --"

"Whoa whoa whoa, when I'm coming back to wrestling?" Chris asked, a bit amused as he opened his fridge. "I should have known a McMahon always has an agenda."

"So you caught me," Shane said with a laugh. "Yeah, I was told to see if you'd be interested in coming back so we can start working on a major angle for you."

"Oh really?" Chris asked as he closed the fridge and opened the freezer instead. "Am I that special that you have stuff already in the works for me?"

"Don't flatter yourself with my answer, but yeah, in case you haven't seen the shows, there does seem to be a Jericho-shaped hole in the lineup."

"Aww, you guys miss me!" Chris said in mock flattery, a wide grin on his face. "You really really miss me!"

"Whatever, see, this is why I didn't even want to call you."

Chris laughed heartily at that as he pulled out a frozen pizza. "Yeah, guess that didn't work out too well for you, huh Shane?"

"Sadly, I guess it didn't." His friend answered with a sigh. "So what do you say? You feel up to coming back, or are you still out searching for the meaning of life or whatever you're doing?"

"Shane, Shane, Shane," Chris said, shaking his head as he unwrapped his frozen pizza. "I told you last time man, I'm not ready to come back. It's not quite time yet."

"It's been a year, Chris, you're depriving all the Jerichoholics of their hero…"

"That's what the internet is for," Chris reasoned, throwing the pizza into the oven and setting the temperature for it to cook. "I respond to their emails all the time."

"You can't compare going online to being in the ring, you know that."

"You're right, but you know my stance on it, and that's it, Shane."

"Alright, it was worth a shot." Shane said with a disappointed sigh.

"Don't sound so heartbroken, I'm not saying I'll never come back." Chris pointed out. "I just need me time, that's all."

"I hear you man, it's cool. How's everything going for you?"

"Pretty good, you know me," Chris said with a shrug as he headed over to his computer to start it up. He leaned back in his reclining leather desk chair, kicking his feet up on his desk. "How about you? Things okay in the wildly insane McMahon household?"

"Yeah, my dad's still recruiting talent left and right, my mom's still trying to keep him sane, and my sister, well, she's Stephanie, she's never going to change." Chris's ears perked at the mention of Stephanie's name, and he shifted a little in his chair as he frowned. "You still there?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, I'm here," Chris said, immediately logging online. "So, Stephanie's still Stephanie, huh?"

"Yeah, you know her, total workaholic."

Chris smiled at that. "She's a McMahon, it must come with the genes."

"Well then I'm glad I missed out on getting those workaholic genes. They skipped me and hit my sister pretty bad." Shane said with a laugh.

"Well, when you get a chance… tell her I said hey," Chris said casually, running a hand through his hair.

"You should tell her yourself, do you want her cell phone number?"

"No, no, it's okay, I think I have it somewhere," the Canadian answered. "She gave it to me with the message to call her the second I even get an inkling to come back to the ring."

"Yeah that sounds like her all right, but well, I gotta get going, Smackdown taping tonight, you know how it is."

"So glad I'm not in _that _anymore." Chris said as he snickered.

"Whatever, you'll come crawling back to your roots." Shane said with a smirk. "Talk to you later man."

"Later Shane."

* * *

Chris hummed to himself as he pulled up his emails once again. He sighed when he saw that he had around 3,000 unread emails, before rubbing his eyes. He supposed he deserved it for being so lazy, before sighing again and clicking on his inbox to start hacking down the huge pile of emails once again. 

"_Hey Chris, what was your favorite scene to do with Stephanie McMahon?"_

He blinked and groaned loudly.

_Not again with the Stephanie emails…_

* * *

Stephanie burst into her office, and was almost startled by the sight of her brother already there. He looked up in surprise from the script for the show that night, raising an eyebrow curiously when he saw her of shock. 

"Jesus Christ Shane, what are you doing in here?" she asked, slightly out of breath.

"Nothing, I was just using your phone to make a call," he answered nonchalantly, shrugging as he looked back down at the script.

"Well, get your own phone!" she snapped as she glared at him. "The show's starting, I need you to get out of here while I get some work done!"

"Geez, the show's not starting for another hour," he said, rolling his eyes as he hopped off her desk. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"Because unlike you, I have things to get done."

"Like what?" he challenged.

"Just get out of my office, Shane!" she cried out in exasperation as she stalked around him and sat down at her desk, pulling up her laptop and turning it on.

"Temper, temper, I was just calling Chris," he said with a smirk. Her head immediately snapped up as she gazed at him.

"Chris… Chris who?" she asked, trying to sound very casual.

"Jericho, Irvine, whichever you prefer," he answered, his smirk widening a bit, before he snapped his fingers. "Oh wait, you wanted me to get out of here, that's right…" his voice trailed as he headed towards the door.

"Wait!" she cried out, biting her lip as he looked back over at her in amusement. She cleared her throat and shook her head, before getting her confidence back as she gave him a cool look. "Did he say if he's planning on coming back soon?"

"Nope," he responded, and she sighed. "But he did say _hey _to you."

Stephanie smiled, before clearing her throat and wiping the smile off her face as she started typing away. Shane snickered and shook his head, leaning against the doorframe.

"If you want him to come back, maybe you should ask him yourself," he suggested, to which she scoffed.

"Whatever, the show ran fine without him before, and it'll run fine without him now," she responded in a cool voice. Shane noticed her typing was becoming harder, but this only amused him as he shrugged.

"Whatever you say sis," he said as he left her office. As soon as she heard the door click shut, she immediately logged online …

* * *

Chris was noticing a particularly scary trend. At _least _every other email was about Stephanie. He was bewildered, not knowing what to make of it, but it was starting to creep him out, to say the least. He scratched his head as he frowned, clicking on his inbox link when he noticed he had a new email. Before he got a chance to read it though, he caught a whiff of pizza. 

_The pizza! Shit! _He cursed and ran over to the kitchen, opening the oven to check on the pizza. He sighed with relief when he saw it wasn't burnt, before returning back over to his desk. His eyes widened when he saw that the new email was from that weird fan from earlier. He hesitated for a moment, before clicking on the link…

"_You're not even gonna ask what truth I'm talking about? Aren't you dying to know?"_

He growled low in his throat as he immediately hit the reply button…

"I don't know why I'm doing this but go ahead… enlighten me…"

* * *

Some things just took priority with Stephanie McMahon, and she just could not focus until those things were done and done right. 

Like choosing a penname on a _certain _fanfiction site for instance.

_Stephy Princess?_

Cheesy.

_Billion Dollar Dream?_

Better, but not good enough.

She sighed and drummed her fingers impatiently on her desk, wondering what would be a good penname that would help hide her identity. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers as she was struck with a brilliant idea. With an evil smirk very similar to her on-screen character, she began to type…

* * *

Chris just stared at his computer monitor, his mouth slightly agape as he read and reread the answer he got. 

"_The truth is that you are madly in love with Stephanie McMahon."_

He started to type, and then deleted everything he had entered. He lightly tapped the keys with his fingers, trying to think of how to even begin to answer this email…

* * *

Now that Stephanie had decided on a brilliant penname (_CJ-Steph-4-ever)_, the next step was to start writing her story. A wide grin came to her face as she pulled up a word document. She was so excited, she was gonna have to give John Cena a raise for pointing her along to the fanfiction site that seemed to idolize him a little too much for her own personal liking. 

_No matter, _she thought as her grin grew. _This won't be about him at all… _

She immediately began to type her wonderfully crafted introduction…

"_Stephanie leaned her arms on the railing of her balcony …"_

_Yes_! She thought as she beamed with excitement. Her smile faltered though as she reread the sentence, feeling something was missing. What could be missing?

_Oh! I know! _She smirked as she fixed the sentence…

"_The beautiful Stephanie McMahon leaned her arms on the railing of her balcony as she gazed at the stars…"_

_Now THAT was more like it… _her smirk grew as she continued to spin her romantic tale.

* * *

"Now you're just talking crazy… I am not in love with Stephanie McMahon, I think I would know if I was!" 

Chris angrily pressed the send button and scowled as he stared at the monitor, drumming his fingers impatiently. Finally, what seemed like eons later, he got his response as he immediately pulled it up to read it.

"_History would prove otherwise, Chris… check out the Raw on August 13th back in '01, you put Steph in the Walls, and you were totally looking at the goods! For shame…"_

He frowned as he racked his brain, trying to remember what the hell was going on in August of 2001. Scratching his head, he remembered that that time period was devoted mostly to the Invasion storyline. He leaned back in his seat as he looked at his rather large video collection, before pulling out a VHS tape for the month of August of 2001.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he smelled burning pizza…

* * *

'"_I love you so much!"_

"_Awww! Kiss me!" _

And so he did, and they lived happily ever after.'

Stephanie reread her ending before sighing heavily. Something was missing from her wonderful story, and she suddenly realized that a good analogy for how much he loved her was appropriate. After thinking about it, she went back and changed the line…

"_I love you so much, I love you more than Trips loves his sledgehammer." _

_Yes! _Now she was finally ready to upload her story…

_Stories… new story… category is miscellaneous… sub-category is wrestling… ah, finally! _She scowled with impatience, before the screen she wanted finally popped up. She immediately began to fill in the fields…

**Title**: Kiss Me

**Summary**: The greatest Jericho & Stephanie story ever told! R&R!

She laughed wildly as she hit the submit button, grinning in wild anticipation of the millions of reviews she was so guaranteed to get. Who the hell wouldn't love her writing? She was head of the creative writing staff for all the shows, for God's sake! She rubbed her hands with glee, so proud of her tale that she had spun as she got up and refrained from skipping out of her office in joy.

* * *

Chris Irvine was now pissed off. Now only was he being harassed by some stupid fan somewhere, but he had also burned his delicious pizza to boot. He sighed and snatched the video, a scowl on his face as he stalked into his living room and angrily shoved the tape into his VCR, before going and plopping down on the sofa. 

_This better be good, _he silently thought as he fast-forwarded through the show to catch the part where he had put Stephanie in the Walls. Finally, he found the part he was looking for and leaned forward a bit as he watched intently.

His eyes widened as he saw that Stephanie had been wearing a dress that night. For the life of him, he couldn't remember why she would wear that when she knew he was going to put her in the Walls, but his eyes grew even more as he watched himself on tape staring down at… "the goods," as the person in the email had so delicately put it. He stopped the tape and stared at his TV for a moment, his horrible disappointment with his burnt pizza forgotten as he just thought to himself.

He was back at his computer in four seconds flat, pulling out his keyboard as he responded to the email…

"Alright junior, I don't know who you are, but I get your point loud and clear. Tell me you're the only one who noticed these things?"

Several hundreds of miles away, Shane McMahon smirked as he read the email in his own office. Hooking up his sister with her crush of over six years was going to be such a breeze. It was all going so well, in fact, that he wanted to kick himself for not doing this sooner. Who knew that stumbling across a fanlisting for Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon would give him the key to finally get his sister the guy she was practically swooning for since the day he arrived in the company?

He immediately started to respond…

"_Sorry to disappoint, but there's a thing called a Smoochy Dreamer apparently, and although I can't say I'm an active member of the not-so-little club, I do think the fans have the right idea… maybe you should look it up sometime? And I also direct you over to this fanfiction site where you can read all about it for yourself…"_

He hit the send button and closed his laptop, grinning as he stood up and headed out to see if his dad needed him for the show that night.

His work was officially done.


	3. Hooked

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far. Glad you guys like this story! This chapter is a bit interactive, and let me just say… if your stuff was quoted _at all _in this chapter, then don't get upset and take it the wrong way. If anything, it's my way of saying that I highly respect your writing, and I threw in mine too just for kicks and to show that I'm never above poking some fun at my own stuff… :)**

**I own no one and nothing… **

--

Chris sighed as he sat back down at his computer with a beer in hand. He had a feeling he was definitely going to need it as he read over the last email from that weird fan. He stared at the link provided for a while, feeling it almost mocking him to click it. Flicking the top off his beer bottle, he pulled the cold beverage closer to him as he finally decided to hell with it and clicked on the link.

He let out a breath when he saw that it was just a writing site that came up. For some reason, he thought he'd be directed to a site that would have pictures plastered everywhere of himself with Stephanie. He leaned forward a bit as he gazed over the different categories, wondering which one would involve wrestling…

It took a few minutes, but he finally found it. Why the hell wasn't it listed under TV shows? Raw was only the longest running TV series in history, after all. It boggled his mind. He snickered when he skimmed over the site, noticing how each story had a rating. He hated to admit it, but it seemed like an intriguing concept. Fans writing about wrestlers, and there was even a function to leave some feedback…

_These people have too much time on their hands, _he thought absent-mindedly, unconsciously skimming over the summaries and looking for a story that involved him. He was a bit disturbed by the amount of John Cena and Randy Orton stories that were for the most part pretty predominant. And what the hell was an OC? He wondered if they were talking about the show, but that didn't make sense. Scratching his head, he also saw that there were a few high school stories thrown in, which even further bewildered the Canadian. And the more he looked and saw that these stories greatly outnumbered any that featured him, his disturbed feeling slowly became a highly offended one.

_Even on a damn fanfiction site, I'm being held back, _he thought to himself in amazement. He sighed and took a swig of his beer, before lowering his bottle and cracking his knuckles. He then clicked the first link he saw…

… only to immediately regret it. He clicked the back button, unable to even read a paragraph of that horrendous writing that had attacked his poor eyes. He shook his head, hoping that the stories that featured him were coined by writers who were actually literate.

He was starting to think the fan who had emailed him was high or something, because he couldn't find even _one _story that featured him with Stephanie. He saw a lot of other weird pairings though, like Randy and John… together. That one had made him laugh pretty hard. He made a mental note to tell Jay about that, maybe even send him the link to the story. He chuckled as he lifted his beer again, shaking his head as he took another swig.

Finally, a story caught his eye that featured him. He shook his head though when he saw that he was paired with Trish. Sure, they had had that entire storyline, but really… that chemistry had been forced on both of their parts. Maybe later he'd read those stories and see if there was an author around that could work around that forced chemistry, but in that moment, he just wanted him some fanfiction about him and Stephanie.

For curiosity's sake, of course…

Suddenly, he straightened up in his chair when a story came up that caught his attention…

**Hugs and Kisses **by **DCFanatic4life**

_A sweet, little Jericho-Stephanie story...with secrets, plans, and set-ups galore...oh, and lots of other characters as well...Updated every week..._

He licked his lips and pulled his beer closer to him as he clicked on the link to read the story as his knee unconsciously jittered up and down…

Being the impatient one that he was, he immediately skipped the author's note and got straight to the writing. He was pleased to see that this writer had skill and had a decent grasp on the English language, but as far as the story went, he was lost. Scrolling back up, he briefly skimmed the author's note enough to get the gist that this was a continuation of another story.

"Duh, Irvine," he mumbled as he clicked on the author's pen name. Patience, however, wasn't his strongest trait as he completely skipped the entire biography to get right to the good stuff. His eyes widened when he saw how many stories this author had, and he had to chuckle at that.

A cult following indeed… finally, he found what he was looking for.

**Hugs and Kisses: The Beginning **by **DCFanatic4life**

_The beginning of Hugs and Kisses that was deleted, so this is just a repost of the first 234 chapters of that story. For the rest, check the title, "Hugs and Kisses."_

234 chapters? He shook his head as he took another swig of beer, before clicking on the link. He didn't have the time to read the whole thing, so he decided to click on a random chapter and go from there. A click here, some scrolling there, and he decided to start at the end of the chapter… just to get a glimpse of what some authors were writing about them.

"_You wanna know something?" he asked her. _

"Always."

Jericho leaned over and blew on the window creating a cloud of fog. Then he slowly wrote, "I love you." Stephanie grinned to herself. Sometimes Jericho could be so romantic without even trying. She took her hand and wrote something on the window.

After she wrote it, she turned herself around and kissed Jericho. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her on top of him. It was a couple minutes before the writing disappeared off the window, but Stephanie and Jericho were too into each other to care. But it didn't change what she had written.

Forever.

He raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head, somewhat intrigued. People were really serious about him and Stephanie as a pairing, he suddenly realized. Up until that point it seemed like a joke, but this writer apparently had some hundreds of chapters devoted to him and Stephanie. This of course only further cemented his belief that the writers on the site had too much time on their hands … and of course, the cheesiness of this ending should have repulsed him from reading more.

_Should _have, but didn't really…

Clicking back to the author's profile, he carefully studied over the summaries with a keen eye, before seeing a story jump out at him that intrigued him…

**Fire and Rain **by **DCFanatic4life**

_Chris and Stephanie hate everyone, and everyone hates them, now why would that be? Completed_

This didn't sound like a stereotypical romance story to him, and he hoped it wasn't. There was only so much cheesiness he could stomach, beer or no beer. He clicked on the link and once again randomly selected a chapter to look at, before resting his chin on one hand as he began to read…

_"I'm sorry Chris, but I can't talk to you," she told him softly, demurely. _

"Stephanie, let me in, I NEED to talk to you," he told her, the fire in his eyes scaring her.

She opened the door further allowing him entrance. He walked in and she closed the door. He stood in the middle of the room, running his hand through his hair. Stephanie stood by the door shyly, not knowing what would bring him here. He turned to her, seeing the scared look in her eyes. He hated this Stephanie. This Stephanie was a fucking coward and he hated her.

He rushed to her and pushed her up against the door roughly. He put both her hands above her head and held them there with one strong hand. She looked at him, mouth agape, actually frightened by him. What the fuck had Hunter done to her, to make her be afraid of the contact that she used to welcome? He put both hands on hers, still above her head and slowly ran them down the sides of her body, eliciting a shudder from her. He moved his hands down slowly until they came to rest on her waist. He leaned in so his mouth was close to her ear, gently blowing her hair back with every breath.

"Miss me Princess?" he said teasingly in a low voice.

Chris's eyes widened as he leaned back in his chair a bit. That was a far cry from that lovey-dovey Hugs story he had looked at. He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly very curious as to what other kinds of stories were written about them. He still thought it was insane, and totally crazy, but there was some kind of weird morbid fascination for him to read more. He just had to see what people were writing about them.

As he clicked on the favorite stories list of this author, his eyes widened even more. There were _tons_ of stories about him and Stephanie… he scanned over the list before picking one that seemed interesting.

**The Games We Play **by **jetderk1462**

_Chris decides to go after what he wants, once and for all.. not knowing that he'll be dealt some surprises along the way. Done!_

He rolled his eyes. How lame were these authors to really think that he wanted Stephanie? He scoffed… and then immediately clicked on the link to read, once again choosing a random chapter before leaning forward, totally intrigued…

_"I thought I said I didn't want to speak to you right now. Don't you have a match coming up soon anyways?"_

_"The show hasn't even started yet, Stephanie." _

"Are you getting smart with me?"

_"So what if I am?"_

_"Honestly Jericho, I swear, you only think about yourself! Never in my whole entire life have I met anyone as self-centered, obnoxious.."_

_"You're forgetting good-looking."_

_"Arrogant! The list goes on and on with you!"_

_"You didn't deny it though." He said, smirking. She stopped walking and just looked at him, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him, though she was incredibly inclined to let her eyes wander all over him.._

_"Deny what?" She demanded. His smirk grew as he leaned in closer to her, until their noses were only centimeters apart._

_"That I'm good-looking." He stated in a challenging tone. His eyes dropped to her lips as he licked his own. "I believe we were interrupted last time.."_

_"Don't you dare.." She said warningly, though she didn't make an effort to create distance between them._

_"And what if I do?"_

_"You'll regret it."_

_"Maybe I will, maybe I won't.."_

He was getting more and more disturbed by these stories…Comforting to him though was the fact that these writers seemed to know how to actually write. He used that as his reasoning behind clicking on this author's pen name and immediately looking at the favorite stories listed for that author. He brought his beer closer to him as he chose yet another story for him to read.

**Infatuation **by **TakerTakeMe**

_What happens when a teasing relationship turns into an infatuation... Excuse the sad excuse of a summary..._

Chris shook his head. A sad excuse of a summary indeed, he silently agreed… before once again immediately clicking on the link to read some of the story. He skimmed a bit just to make sure it was about him and Stephanie. This time, he couldn't just randomly find just any chapter, since there was only one chapter in the story. He ran a hand through his hair again as he scrolled down a bit before beginning to read…

_"Like you'd have the power and the strength to move me," he scoffed, still blocking the doorway. "That would be like an ant trying to move a mountain... Not going to happen."_

_"See, that's where you're wrong," she said slyly, closing the distance between them. She touched his chest, then slowly rubbed her hand down his chest until she reached his waistline. "You see, Jericho, ants don't have hands like mine, and mountains can't respond to my touches like your body can...like your body will..."_

_"Stephanieeeee," he said warningly, looking at her._

_"Yes?" she asked, batting her eyelashes sweetly as her hand traveled just a bit lower._

_"What are you doing? You can't possibly think that..." His voice trailed off, and he looked down at her hand, then back into her eyes. "Jesus, Princess, what the hell are you thinking? We're in the-"_

_"Hallway. So what?" she asked, grinning deviously as she slowly rubbed her palm against the front of the crotch of his jeans…_

Chris stopped reading to get his heartbeat to slow down. He reached for his beer and pressed the cold bottle against the side of his face, unnerved at how this story had made his body temperature start to shoot up as he imagined the story unfolding in real life… he took a deep breath and brought the bottle of beer to his lips, before starting to chug the rest of it down.

A few moments later, he lowered his empty beer bottle and looked back at the screen, before scooching his chair even closer to his computer. Part of him still didn't want to let go of the thought that these writers were really a bunch of losers with no lives, but another part of him, a more prevalent part, admired them. He had studied journalism so he admired the ability to write, and the ability to capture the chemistry that he had undoubtedly had with Stephanie on-screen was blowing him away.

It was now no _wonder _there was a cult following… hell, if he hadn't have been who he was, he might have even been a part of it! That thought made him chuckle as he went back to pick another favorite story, finding one that intrigued him…

**What She Wouldn't Give **by **Wanderlusting**

_Stephanie would give anything to have him back...Finished_

_Wanderlusting! _he marveled in amazement, a smile coming to his face. Now THAT was a real pen name. Just on those grounds alone, he clicked on the title and saw that there were only three chapters. And because he was a special individual who never really liked to do things the easy or typical way, he decided to look at the second chapter. Once again, he began to read, not realizing that the time was slipping him by…

_He knew it was probably silly to be writing these things down, but it gave him a kind of comfort. Hell, maybe the words reached her or something romantic like that. Or maybe he was just stupid and didn't want to send them to her when she would probably just throw them away anyways. He had left on bad terms with her, and she had sent him away, not wanting anything to do with him anymore. If that was the case, then sending stupid notes with stupid words would do nothing to rectify the situation. She probably deserved some sort of grand gesture that he couldn't think of at the moment, or any moment. He didn't know how to make it up to her, so he just…kept away from her._

_He sat down at the desk in his hotel room and looked at the pile of notes sitting there, all in a pristine little pile, none sticking out or out of order, and he picked up the top one. He stared at it and knew that he could've elaborated, could've filled pages and pages with things to say about this one tiny subject, but he couldn't find the words and so it remained the same as all the others, but this one was a little more meaningful._

_I miss you._

Chris actually _felt_ something after reading that…

He didn't know whether to commend the author for that or berate himself for letting writing on a wrestling fanfiction site get to him, but he couldn't help it. Something inside of him had actually stirred a little at reading that kind of emotion, something very different from all the other pieces he had read.

He decided he needed another beer…

Five hours later, Chris's eyes were still glued to his computer screen as he whipped through story after story about him and Stephanie. He hated to admit, but he was hooked. Absolutely, completely, and undeniably hooked. He shook his head sadly, mentally cursing that damn fan for sending him this link. His entire day was being practically shot by reading some writing online, and about him and Stephanie! It was just… weird. Yeah, it was weird, creeping him out almost.

_These people must have no lives, _he thought with a sneer.

But he couldn't help wanting to read some more.

**The Eyes Have It **by **StephanieIrvine**

_There has always been something about her eyes. He just can't escape them. He never will, because he never wants to. ChrisStephanie._

Chris was vaguely aware of his phone ringing in the background, but he didn't make any kind of effort to get up. He was reading stories about him, for God's sake. Who could say that they had a kind of cult following in wrestling fanfiction? Yeah, not that many people. And so he started to read…

_After that, he was what she called him, her rock. He listened to her good days, her especially, excellent, albeit rare days, her bad and disastrous days. He listened to them all. Whether it was on the phone or in person. Though he ha dpreferred the latter of the two, due to the fact, that he could look at her and take in her everything. He had slowly added, it wasn't just her eyes that had captivated him anymore. He could tell you how many smiles she had. Seven: her tired/sleepy one; her fake one, that didn't quite reach her eyes; her genuinely happy one, that did reach her eyes, and blew him away; her shy one, yes, she even had a shy one; her 'I-know-something-you-don't-know.' smile; then there was her smirk, how she ruled with that self satisfying, facetious smirk; then there was her smile for him, he couldn't quite place the emotion behind it, but it was for him only, and he loved that she saved a smile for him._

Actually, he'd have to say she had eight smiles instead of seven. This author had forgotten to include her 'morning after sex' smile. Not that he knew or had seen it, mind you. But he'd been with enough girls to know that such a smile existed. He also wasn't quite sure that she had a smile for him personally. Maybe the next time he saw her, she'd give him a 'I'm gonna kick your ass for leaving for so long but damn am I glad to see you' smile. Now _that_ would be uniquely for him, he thought with a chuckle.

He sighed when the phone started ringing again, disrupting his reading just as he was set to click on another story. Getting up, he walked over to where his cell phone was and picked it up, already going back to his computer…

"Hello?"

"Hey, what's up?"

"Not much, Jay, what's up with you?" Chris replied, although it was a bit absent-mindedly as he started looking for some more stories. Lord, he was hooked. How could he be so hooked on some online stories about him of all things? He was so much bigger and _better _than that…

"Are you listening man?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm just looking at some stuff online…" Chris responded sheepishly, before leaning back in his chair, finally turning away from his computer. "Hey man, can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Jay laughed. "Sure, shoot away."

"You remember when I was working with Stephanie and we had that whole storyline together?"

"Like when you were business partners?"

"Well, yeah, and just any time we worked together…"

"Yeah, what about it?" Chris bit his lip and hesitated, wondering how he should phrase what he wanted to ask. "Chris?"

"I don't know, did you ever think that we had… _real _chemistry together? I mean, I know we have chemistry with people we work with all the time, hell, me and you had chemistry," he added with a chuckle. "But I'm just wondering if you ever thought that me and Stephanie had, I don't know, a different kind of chemistry altogether…"

"Honestly? I thought you two would eventually hook up," Jay admitted as Chris's mouth dropped in surprise.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean, you guys were always flirting backstage."

"I was never," Chris immediately denied, making Jay laugh. "Well, maybe a little, but she was hot man."

"Yeah, she was, and I'm sure she still is. But yeah, we actually had this pool going with the boys to try and see how long it would take for you two to hook up, sad it never happened. You could've made me some money, Irvine," he laughed.

"Wow," Chris said, at a real loss for words as his mind went back to Stephanie…

"Why do you ask?"

"Someone just told me they thought I had the hots for her," Chris mumbled as he turned back to his computer. "And apparently there's like this fan base of people who really thought we'd go well together."

"Dude, _everyone _thought you guys would've worked, you're both zany and weird," Jay snickered.

"Thanks," Chris responded sarcastically.

"It's about time you realized it, but hey, I have to run so I'll call you back later…"

"No problem, later man."

"Later Irvine…"

Chris hung up and looked over at the time, cursing when he saw how late it was. The time had just flown past him while he sat at his computer, and it was disturbing. Nonetheless, he wanted to read just one more story before he went to bed… just one more, he thought to himself, hating how he sounded like some kind of addict.

**Kiss Me **by **CJ-Steph-4-ever**

_The greatest Jericho & Stephanie story ever told! R&R!_

The greatest one huh? He had read some stories that he had to admit were pretty good and captivating, so this summary naturally intrigued him as he clicked on the link to read it, shooting a quick glance over at the time before he did. God, it was late… but he didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to think of why these stories were hooking him so badly, instead deciding to read this last one before he hit the sack…

_Now Chris was moved. "But you haven't seen me in years."_

"_Who cares… I breathe you anyways."_

"_Well good, because I have a song to sing to you."_

"_You do?"_

"_Yes, it's by the best band of all time." He said as he cleared his throat._

"_Fozzy?" She said, slightly disappointed. She didn't care for his loud band._

_He smiled. "Nope… the Backstreet Boys."_

"_Oh!" she clapped her hands. "My favorite band! Oh Chrissy-cakes, I love you so much…"_

"_You are my fire… the one desire…believe when I say, I want it that way…"_

_Stephanie was beaming her radiant smile as she sighed dreamily again. She loved this man dearly, in the same way that Snitsky loved feet, she just loved him. She could feel her heart racing as he sang loudly and beautifully, serenading her._

Chris rubbed at his eyes, before rereading that part again. And then, he burst into laughter, a wild and rich laughter as he felt tears stinging his eyes. This person could not be serious… after the rich array of stories he had read and looked at, this one had to be the LAMEST story about him and Stephanie that he had ever… EVER read.

The story was _so _bad, in fact, that he was absolutely compelled to leave it a review…

**Name: **Y2J

**Email: **

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. Like he'd really supply that! … especially when if you really wanted his email, you could just go to his official website. He rubbed his knuckles a bit before immediately beginning to type…

**Review:**

_What in the hell is this? Seriously, are you kidding me or something? Is this like some kind of joke? Does Chris Jericho, the king of the world, the highlight of the night, the ayatollah of rock and ROLLAH, seem like the kind of person who would sing the BACKSTREET BOYS of all things! Because I would never do such an atrocious, heinous thing! God I'd rather just stab myself in the ear with a screwdriver! You should be ashamed of yourself..._

He hit the submit button and shook his head sadly. That was just horrendous, even for him. That was just up there with the Cena and Randy garbage, that was so bad! He chuckled and stood up, deciding he had looked at this site long enough. Yawning, he stretched a bit, before heading upstairs for bed…

An hour or so later, and he found that he couldn't sleep. The stories he had read were just stuck in his head. He cursed the writers of the stories, but most importantly, cursed the fan who had sent him that link in the first place. If he had never read those stories, then he wouldn't be awake mulling over all the possibilities that lay between him and Stephanie. If he had never clicked on those links, he wouldn't be wondering things that he had no business wondering…

He sighed as he rolled onto his back, gazing at the ceiling for a bit, his mind going a thousand miles per hour…

_Would we really have that much chemistry together?  
Do these fans know something that I don't?  
Does she really feel something for me?  
God, does she even know about these writers?_

He laid there in silence for a long time, before coming up with a decision.

He was going to see her and put an end to the wondering.


	4. CenaFiction

**It's been a while…**

**I own no one. :)**

---

It had been one day. One entire day, which equated to twenty four hours, which translated into 1440 minutes… plenty of time to leave the site alone so she could get her millions of reviews. Stephanie beamed at the thought, already coming up ideas for the sequel to her phenomenal story that people would surely demand. After all, who was she to deny her fans?

She held her head high as she walked through the arena, heading straight towards her office. It was taking a hell of a lot of discipline not to start running so she could get back to her laptop – hell, if she waited just a few more minutes, that might get her another ten or so reviews alone. Laughing at the thought, she clasped her hands together and rubbed them gleefully.

"Yo Stephanie," she heard someone call up in front of her. Looking up, she saw John Cena leaning out of his locker room and giving her a goofy grin, his baseball cap turned backwards on his head. "Come here, I want you to see this."

"I'm busy, John, is it important?" she asked in her business tone, trying not to sound annoyed. Time was money, or in this case, time was a million or so reviews just waiting to happen.

"C'mere, I wanna show you somethin'," he said with a smooth smile as he motioned with his head for her to come over to him. Sighing, she walked over to his locker room as he held the door open for her. She gave him a suspicious look, her eyes narrowing as she folded her arms over in front of her.

"What is it?" she demanded, and he slipped back into his room, holding the door open for her and extending his free arm towards his room.

"Come in and you'll see," he said mischievously, making her roll her eyes. She walked inside his locker room and he quickly went over and sat down on his sofa, pulling his laptop into his lap as he began to type. He looked up at her and grinned, patting the sofa next to him before resuming his typing.

"John, really," she said with an exasperated sigh.

"Do you remember that site I was telling you about?" he asked as she walked over to him. She sat down next to him and looked over at his laptop, noting the fanfiction site he was on. She suppressed a groan at the sight, half-wanting to tear the laptop out of his hands so she could check her emails.

"I remember," she mumbled, already feeling restless to leave. "What about it?"

"Yo, check this out," he said as he turned the laptop to face her. "This is the wrestling section, remember?"

"Uh huh," she said, trying to sound bored, even though her eyes were quickly scanning the stories listed for her own. She frowned slightly when she didn't see it, wondering how her story could possibly get lost in the shuffle.

"Girl, check out how popular I am," he said arrogantly as he peered closer at the screen. Stephanie raised an eyebrow, wondering if maybe he had vision problems. "Look at that, there's a story about me right there, see that? Right there at the top, number three."

She looked to where he was pointing, before snickering. "_Fifteen Years Later, The Sandra and John Love Story?_ Do you even know a Sandra?"

"Yeah, a long time ago, but that's not the point," he said quickly. "The point is how popular I am on this site, man, people _love _me on here!"

"So you have one story, big deal," Stephanie said as she rolled her eyes.

"One story! One story? Oh, you must have me confused with Funaki or somethin', cause I am the _man _on this site! I'm the fanfiction king, I should just buy this site out. Look at this," he said as he began counting. "A story about me and Maria, a story about me and my younger brother…"

"Do you even have a younger brother?" Stephanie demanded, and John frowned as he leaned back to get a better look at her.

"Yo, Steph, why you hating on this? Just cause no one really writes about you, doesn't mean you gotta rain on everyone else's parade," he stated, before looking back at his laptop. "Here's one with me and Trish… you know, they really write a lot about us, it's kinda weird," he said with a frown.

"_Excuse _me," Stephanie said as she stood up, glaring down at John. "Did you just say that no one writes about me?"

"Now hold on just a minute, I didn't say all that…"

"Yes, you did say it, I was sitting right next to you!" she shot back, putting her hands on her hips.

"Nah girl, I said that no one _really _writes about you, sure maybe your name comes up every now and then, but come on… I am by far the most popular guy on this site, they might as well rename the site to CenaFiction instead of fanfiction," he said with a laugh.

"I'll have you _know, _Cena, that I looked over that site and there are tons of stories that feature me," she replied in a smug tone.

"Well, I don't know about all that," he said absent-mindedly as he went back to counting how many stories featured him. "All I know is that there are tons of fans that love me."

"Tons of fans online, sure," she mumbled under her breath, putting her hands on her hips. "Now, while I do appreciate you trying to show me how much the fans really love you, you know that the plan still stands, John."

"Wait wait wait wait wait," he said as he got up quickly, holding his laptop as he went over to Stephanie. "You didn't see all these stories featuring Trish and me."

"John," she started in a warning tone as he raised his laptop to her so she could see.

"Look at this, there are eight stories alone on this page of me, see, people love me!"

"John!" she cried out, making him sigh. "You're turning heel, and that's it, stop trying to get out of it," she stated as he slowly walked back to the sofa. He collapsed onto it, looking dejectedly down at his screen.

"Fine," he mumbled, resuming some typing. She rolled her eyes and would have offered some words of comfort, but then she remembered that she hadn't checked her email for potential reviews. Scratch that, for _guaranteed _reviews. Grinning, she forgot all about John and his heel crisis as she practically ran out of his locker room, excited to read the glowing feedback from her millions of readers.

Meanwhile, Chris was slowly pushing open the door to Stephanie's dressing room, poking his head in slowly as he looked around, a scowl on his face. He blew a large bubble with his gum, letting it pop as he resumed his chewing. Seeing that no one was there, he let himself in. He put his hands in his pockets, casually strolling over to where her desk was, part of him wondering what the hell he was doing there.

Standing now behind her desk, he ran a hand through his hair, wondering if this was a good idea. Maybe he shouldn't have dropped by unannounced? He thought about this for a moment, before shrugging. The best things in life were surprises, and he doubted Stephanie would be upset by him dropping her a surprise visit. He leaned down a little to look at her laptop that was up on her desk, wanting to get a closer look at her screensaver.

Just then, the door burst open, startling him. Stephanie immediately strolled in, before being startled herself at the sight of someone already in her dressing room. Her surprise quickly grew into shock at just who the man was, and she stared at him with her mouth slightly agape as she put a hand over her racing heart.

"Chris?" she asked in disbelief, and he grinned impishly at her as he slowly removed his sunglasses.

"In the flesh," he said as he put his sunglasses down on her desk.

"God," she stammered, not knowing what to say to him and her story completely forgotten about. "It's been so long…"

"It's been too long," he said with a warm smile as he stepped around her desk, before extending his arms to her. "But hopefully not that long that you can't give an old friend a hug, right?"

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach at this, but she immediately felt herself gravitating towards him. She kept her cool though, giving him an easy smile as she lifted her arms up to hug him. He pulled her in by her waist when she did, holding her tightly against him.

"Ah, still give the best hugs I see," she said in an amused tone, wrapping her arms tighter around him.

"Only the best for you," he said as he slowly loosened his hold. She raised an eyebrow at this, giving him a curious look, especially when he didn't immediately let go. She was extremely aware of his hands resting lightly on her hips, and the touch alone was making her want to do inappropriate things to him. Instead, she cleared her throat uncomfortably, wishing he had given her a heads up on this impromptu visit.

"Glad to see some things never change," she said in a cool voice, pulling away from him reluctantly. She walked around him, going around her desk until she was able to take a seat behind it. "So what brings you around here, Chris?"

"Just came by to see you," he said as he gave her a wink. She laughed at this as she pulled her laptop closer to her, pressing a few keys so the screensaver would disappear.

"You sure are the charmer, aren't you?"

"So I'm told," he said with a laugh. "Seriously though, I just wanted to see how you were doing, is that a crime?"

"Might be, illegal checking up on the boss's daughter, that might turn a few heads," she responded in an amused tone.

He licked his lips as he watched her type away on her laptop, wondering how he never noticed the chemistry that was between them. He could feel it now, and he wondered if she could feel it too. She looked up at him then, and he gave her a smile.

"You know, I did have something to talk to you about," he informed her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That you're coming back to the show?" she asked in a hopeful tone, which made him chuckle as he looked down at the floor momentarily, before shaking his head.

"Nope, not yet," he said, looking back up at her with a smirk. "I don't think you guys are ready for me yet."

"Chris, if you come back, you'll get a main event spot guaranteed," she told him, trying hard not to sound like she was pleading. "It'd be good for you and your fans, and imagine the buyrates, people would love it if you came back, and --"

"Stephanie…" he said in a sing-song tone, making her sigh out of frustration.

"Fine, I had to try," she mumbled, going back to her laptop as she logged into her email while talking to him. After all, she was a McMahon, which meant she could multitask. No problem.

"Aren't you going to ask what I wanted to talk about?" he asked curiously, and she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He was looking so good, leaning against her desk the way he was.

"Alright," she relented, leaning back in her reclining chair and folding her hands in her lap as she gazed at him. "What brings you around these parts?"

"Man, you make it sound like I've been gone forever," he said with a laugh.

"It's been over a year, yeah, I consider that to be forever. Hell, I almost forgot what you looked like," she teased, and he grinned at that.

"Oh really? You could forget what I look like?" he teased back as he slowly walked around her desk. "That kinda hurts, Steph."

"What kinda hurts is you abandoning your WWE family for so long," she said, trying to keep her cool as he approached her. "We were even starting to think you were never going to come back."

"Well, I'm still not coming back, don't start booking me in any matches just yet… unless you're going to have me finally destroy Trips on pay-per-view, I'm game for that," he said with a smirk as she laughed.

"Alright, you're not coming back, I get it. So what can I help you with, Mr. Irvine? You're a busy man, you don't do things for the hell of doing them."

"You're right, I don't," he agreed, before hopping up onto her desk next to her laptop. He rested his hands on his knees, looking down at the floor and wondering how he was going to bring this up. It was a weird topic to him, and part of him also felt embarrassed that this was the real reason why he had come all the way to the show.

Stephanie noticed his hesitation, and quickly turned back to her laptop and clicked on the inbox for her email. The grin on her face slowly turned into a look of confusion when she only saw five, lonely review alerts sitting in her inbox. Surely, there had to be more, perhaps buried in the mass of emails from her work. She was about to run a search when she felt Chris's eyes on her.

"You know, Steph…" he started in a thoughtful voice. She looked over at him curiously.

"What is it?"

"I got this email the other day, and it was really weird," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Stephanie leaned back once again, forgetting about her reviews as she just looked at him.

"It wasn't a stalkerish kind of email, was it? We can track the person down for you, if that's what it is…"

"No, it was just some fan who thought I had the hots for you," he said sheepishly, making her blink in surprise.

"Oh," she responded, not really knowing what else to say. Her heart felt like it was racing in her chest, and yet she couldn't think of anything else to say. She almost didn't want to hear whatever else he was going to tell her, but what could she do? Tell him to shut up? It was obvious that he was going somewhere with this, but where?

"Yeah," he said, ending her onslaught of questions. "And not only that, the weird part is tons of fans think that me and you have something going on or something, I don't know, it's just weird. Weird fans," he said with a chuckle, and she forced a laugh.

"Yeah, me and you, please," she said, before realizing how bad that sounded. "I mean, not that I would be totally turned off to the idea, but it's just… I mean… yeah, just pretend like I didn't say a word," she finished quickly, feeling utterly embarrassed. Her embarrassment only grew when she heard him laugh.

He watched her blush and he couldn't help the huge grin that came to his face. He could feel something there between them, and it was intriguing to him. She was acting differently around him, or maybe she was acting the same and his blinders had been lifted. He didn't know, but he wasn't going to rush anything just yet. First, he had to make sure that there was something really there, before he dove in and made a fool out of himself.

"Well apparently there are lots of fans out there who think we'd go really well together," he said as nonchalantly as he could. "I mean, there's this thing called fanfiction right, and tons of fans write stories about us all the time."

"Oh really?" she asked, hoping her voice didn't sound as squeaky to him as it did to her. He couldn't have _possibly _have looked at the same fanfiction that she had been looking at, could he? Clearing her throat, she raised her chin and gave him a curious look. "Did you read some of it?"

"Yeah, I read a lot of it," he said as he laughed. "The writers are actually really good, they hooked me into the stories."

"Oh, okay," she said with a sigh of relief. "I'm glad competent writers are handling us together then, I'd hate to see myself in the hands of a horrible writer."

"Oh man," Chris said with a grin. "There was this one _horrible _story that I read, God, it just sucked _so _bad. I mean, imagine The Great Khali doing gymnastics, it sucked worse than that."

Stephanie laughed at that, "You're horrible, Chris."

"It's true Steph, it just sucked. I left it a review saying so."

"Seriously? You left this story a review?"

"Yeah, I had to. It was just sucking so bad, it was ruining our names. I mean, you can exploit my name all you want, just don't ruin it. There's a difference," he stated in a serious tone, which just made her laugh.

"I have to read this story now, you'll have to link me up sometime."

"I can show you right now," he said as he hopped off her desk. He leaned over her as he pulled her laptop closer to the edge of the desk, before typing in the name of the site.

"Chris, can't this wait? I've got a lot of work that I need to get done…"

_And reviews I have to read! _

"… and I really don't know if this is the best idea," she said, wondering if she was making any sense. But how could she be making sense with Chris leaning over her, letting her get a whiff of his hot cologne that was making her want to just have her way with him?

"It'll only take a sec, Princess," he said, his eyes focused as he scanned the stories listed. "What the hell is up with all of these Cena stories?" he muttered under his breath, but Stephanie heard him and snickered.

"Yeah, that's what I say all the time," she said as she finally looked at the site he was on. Her eyes grew wide when she recognized it, and she swallowed hard. "Um, this is the site you were talking about?"

"Yeah," he answered absent-mindedly, continuing to look for the story. "That damn fan linked me up to the site, and there really are tons of stories on here about us."

"Crazy fans," Stephanie mumbled, still enjoying the scent of his cologne.

"Seriously… oh, here it is, check this out Steph," he said as he clicked on a link. He let her get closer to the screen before he leaned in behind her, reading over her shoulder. "It's so ridiculous, I can't believe someone would actually post that and think it's good. Oh, and wait until you get to the ending, it's worse than watching Steiner and Trips in a pose-down, let me tell you," he said with a laugh.

Stephanie, however, wasn't laughing as she stared at her computer screen. She blinked a few times, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her, but no. There she was, staring at her very own story… the reality of the situation suddenly came down upon her, and she blushed maddeningly at the realization that Chris's insults were aimed towards _her _writing.

"I mean seriously, me singing the Backstreet Boys? Are you kidding me?" he laughed, before reaching over in front of her and clicking on the reviews. "Check this out, I actually wrote this review," he said proudly as Stephanie, still shell-shocked, leaned forward to read it. "Pretty cool huh?" he said as she winced.

"The story isn't _that _bad," she mumbled defensively, and that only made him laugh even more.

"Are you kidding, Stephanie? Seriously, do I look like the kind of guy who would do all of that cheesy romantic crap? Those lines are like something out of a Shakespeare on crack story, give me a break. It's one of the worst stories I have ever…"

"It is not," she snapped, closing the web browser. "It's not that bad of a story."

"Steph, come on…"

"What's wrong with the Backstreet Boys?" she demanded, angrily folding her arms over in front of her. "Maybe their music isn't half-bad."

"Whatever," he said with a laugh. "It's not half-bad if you're deaf, come on, you're acting like you're the one who wrote it or something."

"Because I did," she stated flatly, glaring at him. He snickered at that, before suddenly realizing that she wasn't joking. His laughter instantly died as the awkwardness of the situation came down on him, and he hesitantly cleared his throat.

"Oh… wow," he said, at a loss for words.

"Yeah. Thanks for the lovely review," she said sarcastically, and he groaned inwardly.

"Uh, you know, on second thought, it's really not that bad…"

"You've just spent the last few minutes insulting it and tearing it apart, so nice try, Chris," she said, suddenly feeling annoyed by him. He cursed under his breath, running a hand through his short hair.

"Steph, I didn't know… how was I supposed to know?" he asked, bewildered at the situation. "And… wait a minute, you're writing about me confessing my love to you?"

She blushed at this, suddenly wishing she had kept her big mouth shut. Standing quickly, she closed her laptop and started gathering all of her things.

"It was just a stupid thing to pass the time, obviously, since even you think it's stupid," she said quickly, and he sighed.

"Come on, I really didn't know…"

"You think my story is stupid!" she yelled, and he winced.

"I didn't say that…"

"I'll have you know it's one of the _greatest _stories on the entire site!" she cried out, and he instinctively snickered at the claim, which only further infuriated her. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down, before looking back at him. "Whatever, Chris, if you think my writing is so horrible, maybe it's a good thing you haven't come back yet. God _forbid _a horrible writer like me write your storylines, right?"

"Well, so long as it's not like that story…" he said to himself, before realizing he'd said it out loud. "Shit, I mean, Steph, that story wasn't that bad…"

"Save it," she said as she gathered her laptop up in her arm with her paperwork thrown on top of it. Lifting her head proudly, she marched around her desk and towards the door, not looking back at him. "I believe you can show yourself out."

"Come on Steph, don't be like that," Chris pleaded, but she was gone before he could even finish his sentence. Sighing, he walked back and sat down heavily on the chair at her desk, intent on waiting for her to come back. Surely, she had to come back to her office eventually.

He groaned at his stupidity as he leaned his head back, but honestly, how was he supposed to have guessed that Stephanie herself would write a story about them? And not so much write a story about them, but write one so _badly_? He was just glad her storylines were for the most part much better written than that story, because if they weren't, the WWE would be a sinking ship.

He looked back up when the door swung open, and his flicker of hope died when he saw that it was Shane who was sauntering into the room. The young McMahon raised an eyebrow at the sight of Chris sitting in his sister's office, giving the Canadian a curious look.

"Chris, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for your sister to come back so I can apologize to her," Chris mumbled, folding his arms over his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see why Stephanie's kicking me out of my office tonight," Shane chuckled, before walking over to the desk where Chris was sitting at. "So what's with you man? Just come in and ruin my night by pissing my sister off?"

"Whatever, I didn't know she would get so bent out of shape. I was just making stupid comments," Chris said dejectedly, and Shane snickered.

"You should apologize to her over dinner," Shane suggested nonchalantly.

"Yeah, I need to apologize," Chris mumbled absent-mindedly, before shaking his head and looking back up at Shane. "Wait, did you just say over dinner?"

"Yeah, dinner, preferably somewhere nice. My sister doesn't go for cheap things, she's just a tad bit high maintenance."

"Are you telling me to ask your sister out on a date or something?" Chris asked, bewildered as he gazed up at Shane. "Do you know how pissed she is at me right now?"

"What did you do? Insult her makeup?"

"No, I insulted some story she wrote," Chris said with a shrug. "It was a lame story man, and I didn't know she had written it. How was I supposed to know?"

"So apologize."

"Yeah, thanks Sherlock, I was just sitting here waiting for my good looks to improve," Chris said sarcastically. "Of course I'm going to apologize; I put my foot in my mouth. I have to apologize."

"Alright, I'll leave you alone to think about your crisis. Although I do think dinner would be a nice touch."

Chris scoffed as he watched Shane leave, muttering under his breath about the McMahon family. Honestly, couldn't things be simple? Why couldn't Stephanie have written one of the better stories about them instead of one of the worst? Honestly, how could she possibly think that he was capable of serenading her to the Backstreet Boys of all things? He snorted at the thought.

"What are you going to do, sit there all night long?" he heard a voice ask. He looked back up to see Shane's maddening smirk looking back at him as he poked his head in through the doorway, and he frowned at the sight.

"Don't you have better things to do than bother me?"

"You do know she's going to ignore you for the rest of the night, right? Whatever you said must've really pissed her off."

"Oh come on, you can't be serious! I didn't know it was her story for crying out loud!"

"I don't know, but if you want to apologize without the dinner, then you better give her some grand gesture to make up for whatever it was that you said," Shane said with a shrug, before disappearing again.

Chris sighed heavily as he covered his face with his hands, groaning into them. Why did women have to be so complicated? Why couldn't Stephanie just be a better writer was the real question, he thought bitterly to himself. And what the hell was with Shane and his dinner suggestions? He scowled, deep down knowing that it wasn't that bad of an idea. There was definitely something there between them, and maybe if he could get her out on a date…

He was almost taken aback by this thought, but the more he thought about it, the more he had to admit that dinner with Stephanie didn't sound like that bad of an idea after all. It wasn't like he was asking for her hand in marriage or anything. A grin slowly crept to his face as he rubbed his chin. Yes, dinner was sounding better to him by the second.

And if it took a grand gesture on his part to get her to agree, then he would just have to give her the gesture of a lifetime.


	5. Shotguns and serenades

**Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been super long since I touched this. Better late than never though. :)**

**Enjoy and leave some love (or hate)…**

**Also as a reminder, if you do a search on this site for the username, "CJ-Steph-4-ever", you will find "Stephanie's" story (also, it's worth reading the reviews for that story…). That'll help put this chapter more into perspective. :) Thanks!**

--

"I cannot believe I'm doing this…"

"You said whatever it takes," Shane reminded him, a devilish smirk on his face as he sat next to Chris in his car. Chris shook his head, his eyes lowered on the sheets of paper in front of him.

"And you couldn't come up with a better idea?" Chris mumbled, already feeling embarrassed over what he was going to do.

Shane shifted in the driver's seat to face Chris. "Look, genius, you're the one who insulted the story."

"Have you _read _this?" Chris demanded, practically shoving the papers in Shane's face. "It's terrible, it's like a little kid wrote it!"

Shane rolled his eyes and shoved the papers away from him. "Yeah, I read it. So what? She can write a good storyline, but she lacks a little with the romance stuff."

"Lacks a little," Chris repeated, scoffing before putting the papers back on his lap. He scowled as he read the highlighted parts again. "I can't believe she's so upset because I didn't like this story. It's just one man's opinion."

"You discouraged her from _unleashing her imagination,_" Shane said, snickering. Chris looked up and gazed at him curiously.

"That's the slogan from the fanfiction website she writes on," Chris said accusingly.

"Oh, is it?" Shane asked innocently as Chris glared at him.

"What do you know about it?" Chris demanded, starting to put two and two together.

"Nothing," Shane said quickly, before Chris reached out and grabbed the front of Shane's shirt and yanked him closer so they were face-to-face. "Hey, watch the shirt!" Shane cried out.

"It was you!" Chris yelled angrily. "You were the one e-mailing me, weren't you?"

"Chris, you're going to blow our cover!"

Chris glared at Shane a moment longer before releasing him. Shane sighed and straightened out his shirt as Chris looked over the printed story in front of him.

"It's your fault I'm in this mess," Chris informed Shane as he highlighted another line. Shane laughed at that.

"Please, you two have been into each other for years. You both just needed pushes in the right direction. You'll thank me for this one day."

_At your wedding reception_, Shane added mentally, a wicked grin on his face. Chris rolled his eyes, before noting the time.

"All right, it's 1AM," he said, a mixture of nervousness, embarrassment, and anxiety swirling in his stomach as he put his highlighters away.

"Okay, let's do it."

The two men opened the car doors at the same time, both quietly sneaking out. Shane opened the back seat and took out the portable boom box he had found in his basement, and Chris went over his lines again, rehearsing them silently as he walked across the vast lawn in front of him.

Finally, he stopped walking and looked up at the enormous house in front of him. His eyes widened a little as Shane walked up next to him.

"Wow, big house," Chris said, impressed.

"I know, my dad bought it for her as a birthday gift," Shane snickered.

"So which room is hers?" Chris asked, looking at the myriad of windows the house had.

"The one with the balcony," Shane answered, pointing as Chris groaned.

"Oh you have _got _to be kidding me, she actually has a balcony?!" Chris hissed. Shane just smirked and lowered his boom box, before crossing his arms over his chest in amusement. Oh, he was going to love this.

"Show time," he said simply, smirking as Chris shot him a glare.

Chris grumbled under his breath before heading over to the house, surveying carefully before picking up a rock. He tossed it up lightly and caught it, deeming the weight enough. He then turned around and walked back over to Shane, shooting his friend another evil glare as he handed Shane the printed out copy of Stephanie's "Kiss Me" story. Shane took it and folded it up, before shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans.

Chris took a deep breath, tossed the rock up and down lightly a few times, before rearing back and throwing the rock hard towards the house. It hit against the side of the balcony he was aiming for. Chris growled and went to retrieve the rock to try again as Shane snickered.

"Come on man, let's get some aim over here," Shane told Chris as the blond man walked back over to him. Chris just sneered at him before turning to the balcony again. Looking very serious, he focused on the balcony, before throwing the rock again.

The rock flew through the air, went through the bars of the balcony, and shattered into the glass of the sliding door.

"Oh shit," Chris said, the color draining from his face. He grabbed Shane and the two took off running around the house. Shane just barely managed to grab the boom box before Chris hauled him with him.

"Geez, throw it harder why don't you?" Shane panted as they ran.

"Oh shut up!" Chris shot back at him.

Stephanie was sound asleep when she heard the crash of broken glass. She woke up immediately, sitting up and wondering what happened. Glancing around her room, her sleep-induced haze disappeared when she saw the broken glass on her balcony door. She turned on the light on her nightstand and threw her covers off.

A minute or so later, she angrily threw open her balcony door and stepped out on the balcony wearing old steel-toed boots that her brother had once left at her house. The sound of broken glass crunched under her boots, and her nightgown flowed around her as she reloaded the shotgun her father had given her a year ago.

"Holy shit!" Chris hissed, his eyes wide as he and Shane hid behind some bushes towards the side. "The girl owns a shotgun!"

"I know, my dad gave it to her since she lives alone," Shane whispered.

"She's going to kill us," Chris whispered back, as Shane rolled his eyes..

Stephanie surveyed the enormous yard next to her home. Her home was the first on the block, and on this side of the house, she had a good amount of grass stretched out in front of her where it eventually disappeared into a wooded area. She raised the shotgun and looked around carefully.

"If you're hiding out there, show yourself!" she yelled.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm too good looking to die," Chris mumbled as Shane stifled a laugh.

"She's not going to shoot us, come on, let's go," Shane said, grabbing Chris by the wrist. He was about to stand when Chris hauled him back down.

"No, sit your ass back down. We go nowhere until she puts that thing away," Chris commanded.

"Oh will you just get _on _with it," Shane said, standing again. He picked up his boom box and grabbed Chris again with his free hand.

"Shane!"

"Oh just relax, look, she's already gone," Shane told him. Chris looked up and sure enough, no one was standing in the balcony anymore even though the light was still turned on. He let out a relieved sigh, before dusting himself off as the two walked back over to their previous spot.

"You McMahons are nuts," Chris mumbled as they stood underneath her balcony again.

"Well, she's awake," Shane said with a smirk. He lifted the boom box and looked at Chris pointedly. Chris sighed, before nodding.

"My beautiful princess," Chris called out loudly. "I am here."

Stephanie was dialing the police when she heard a man's voice coming from outside of her window. She scowled and hung up, before picking up her shotgun. She gripped it tightly as she marched through the glass and out onto her balcony, before peering down.

Chris smiled up at her, glad to see she wasn't firing the weapon in her hands. Shock was on Stephanie's face as she stared down at Chris.

"Chris?" she asked, bewildered.

Chris took a deep breath, before saying, "Yes, hunny bunch. It's me, Chris, your Chris."

Suddenly, everything clicked in Stephanie's mind. And suddenly, even though she began to blush maddeningly, she found herself unable to keep the huge smile off her face at what was actually happening.

"Um, so, even though I don't love you like… you're an aquarium tank, with me being a fish… um, I think maybe if we went out to dinner and talked about things, like wrestling storylines, our lives, your excellent writing, my love for hockey, your love for er… shotguns…" Chris cleared his throat, looking over at Shane.

"The oil tank, she's an oil tank," Shane whispered.

"Oh yeah," Chris whispered back, looking back up at Stephanie. "Um, I think if we talk more and get to know each other more, I think I can love you as if you were the oil tank and I was a car, and you could keep me going like the Energizer bunny… well, that sounds kind of dirty, but you know…"

"Chris," Stephanie said, lowering her shotgun to the balcony much to Chris's relief. She folded her arms on the rail and leaned forward a little, smiling down at him, a knowing glint in her eyes. He smiled back at that. "Are you asking me out on a _date_?"

"Yes, pumpkin face," Chris told her, his smile growing. "And if you refuse, then I will have to drive to the nearest bridge and end my worthless existence. So please say yes," he laughed.

"Yes, I accept," Stephanie said brightly.

"Good, so, I'll just be headed home now…" Chris took a step back, and winced when he heard Shane growl. Chris sighed, and stepped forward again, looking up at Stephanie. "But before I go… I, er, have a song to sing to you."

Stephanie practically squealed at what was happening as her brother raised his boom box, turning it on and turning on the volume, before putting the boom box on top of his head. Chris's cheeks blushed furiously as the karaoke version of the Backstreet Boys song, "I Want It That Way" started up. He cleared out his throat again, and braced himself as if about to go into a Hell in a Cell match.

And then, he began to sing, much to Stephanie's delight and much to Shane's eternal amusement. Shane also neglected to tell Chris that he was holding up his black cell phone right up against the boombox, and that it was recording everything…

"_You are my fire… the one desire… believe when I say, I want it that way…"_

Stephanie beamed as Chris serenaded her, and Shane smiled at his sister's obvious happiness. She sighed dreamily, so happy that he was actually doing this for her. She knew he didn't like the Backstreet Boys, and she knew he was embarrassed to be doing this in front of her brother, but he was still _doing it. _

She couldn't smile more if she tried.

_"I never want to hear you say 'I want it that way', cause I want it that way!"_

"Oh Chris, that was beautiful," she said as she clapped, her smile wide and brilliant.

"Of course it was, I'm the best… sugar muffin…" Chris's voice trailed a little bit as Stephanie lifted herself up on the balcony rail so she was sitting on it. She slowly turned towards him, swinging one leg over the rail and then the other. His eyes grew wide. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Catch me, Chris!"

Chris's eyes practically bugged out of his head as he saw her actually jump.

"Stephanie!" Shane yelled, and then there was a loud 'oomph' as Chris caught Stephanie in his arms. The force though sent him to the ground with Stephanie right on top of him.

Chris groaned, "Oh God, my back…"

"I'll give you a massage and make it all better," Stephanie told him. He opened his eyes to find her lying on top of him, her face inches from his. She had a huge smirk on her face.

"Are you crazy, woman?" he asked her, trying to sound annoyed but not really in a rush to move her from where she was. "You could have killed yourself… hell, I think you broke my back."

"Mmm, I don't think so," she said, before kissing his cheek. He grinned a little at that.

"You don't think so, huh," he said teasingly.

"Nope, you've had much worse than that in the ring," she told him matter-of-factly as her hair fell down around her face. He smiled and reached up to brush her hair back.

"So, does this all warrant dinner?"

"Hmm," she said, pretending to think about it. Her smirk grew as she looked down at him, his hand still lingering on her face. "Maybe."

"No maybe, you've already accepted," he told her, his eyes bright. "But before we make plans, the story isn't done yet?"

"It isn't?" Stephanie asked curiously.

He smirked then and, gently, brought her down to him for a kiss. She obliged, butterflies in her stomach as her lips met his.

"And… this is the part where I leave," Shane said, laughing as Stephanie and Chris deepened their kiss on the grass. "I'll be waiting in the car, Chris."

Neither paid him any attention, which was just fine by him. After all, he had his laptop in the backseat of his car, and he had a video that he needed to upload to YouTube…

**End**


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